Story Of An Hour Figurative Language

In Kate Chopin’s 1894 work, “The Story of an Hour”, symbolism and figurative language are utilized to express the central theme of freedom. Mrs. Mallard believes the she has been granted freedom in the form of the death of Brently Mallard, and, ultimately, finds freedom from her unhappy marriage in death. The author immediately starts off by mentioning Mrs. Mallard’s heart trouble, which could symbolize her unhappy marriage. Chopin also tells of how Mrs. Mallard doesn’t take the bad news of her husband’s death as most women would, but, instead, “she wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment,” (page 1) Later, in Mrs. Mallard’s room, she sits in an armchair facing window. Chopin writes the she is “pressed down by a physical exhaustion that